Magnolia, also known as MTLS (pronounced 'Metals") or Magnolia the Living Swamp (she/they) is a character played by Jules (they/any) in Hell to Pay A Tiresian Archives Nonfiction One-shot. Magnolia is a swamp genasi oath of the ancients paladin and a writer.
Description
Her green, doll-like skin is hidden beneath a living mass of vines that act as her body. She wears no armor and carries no weaponry as they prefer to shape their powerful vines into whatever objects they need at a given time. This ability extends to her interactions with the natural world, as she is uniquely skilled at stealth thanks to her natural appearance. In short, she is a swamp monster.
Centuries of exile have taught Magnolia to do create the most effect with as few words and actions possible. She is quiet, calculated and fierce. She is one of the most dangerous creatures in the multiverse. Her writings on the other hand are vibrant, colorful and varied. She prefers to imagine colorful words, scenarios and characters where mischief and merriment abound.
Backstory
Her original name is lost to the ages. Magnolia is the name she gave herself. The Living Swamp is the name she's been given by the thieves and interlopers who have tried and failed to best her over her centuries on the material plane. As a child in the Feywild, she lived the first two material centuries of her life in luxury. Afforded all the privileges of having a parent on the council, Magnolia wanted for nothing. Still, she longed for adventure beyond the bounds of her plane.
Before the Shadowfell/Feywild war, the fae prided themselves on their ability to influence the other planes, so Magnolia grew up hearing fantastic stories of extraplanar travel and material plane hijinks. After the war, Magnolia's mother, a veteran of the fighting, ascended to the Winter Court of the Fae High Council and became known as The Protector of the Veil. The Protector assumed the responsibility of monitoring rifts connecting the feywild to other planes and restricting travel between them. This is a job she treated with the utmost seriousness and punished those who traveled across the planes anyway with severe repercussions. Magnolia greatly enjoyed skirting her mother's restrictions and journeying to the material plane as she fancied. Even when she was caught and punished by the Protector, Magnolia remained undeterred.
Eventually, the Protector had enough of her daughter's transgressions and banished Magnolia from the feywild. "If she longs for the material plane so much," her mother had said, "then there she will spend eternity."
Magnolia was cast into the swamp lands of Kauvet and bound to guard a portal connecting them to the feywild. Her mother laid a curse on her that would mask her presence by combining it with the natural landscape of her new swamp home. Additionally, it bound her essence to the that of the portal, so that as long as the portal stood, so would Magnolia to protect it. And so the years went.
Always an artist at heart, Magnolia eventually found comfort in the imagined worlds of her mind and began writing/illustrating fictional tales to entertain herself and her friends. She grew to appreciate the beauty, power, and versatility of her natural home, and made friends with the creatures and beings who lived there. One of them encouraged her to publish her work for the people on the material plane and Magnolia became quite a successful author with significant footholds in multiple genres including children's stories, mystery, adventure, and romance. In a world where certain mortal being commonly live 700 years or more, Magnolia's anonymous identity wasn't really considered out of the ordinary as she published book after book across the centuries.
Magnolia was a powerful force in battle and no stranger to enemy incursions in her protected territory. However, the horrors she witnessed and fought during the reign of Amias Lavandin were significantly troubling to the immortal guardian (see: Session 6 - The Swamp of The Foe of Many Faces Returns). Determined to finally leave her indentured servitude, Magnolia made a deal with an entity from the hells who she'd once encountered in the swamp. Now indebted to this devil, the bonds placed on Magnolia by her mother all those centuries ago were gone and she was free to journey from the swamp. She decided to assume the identity of an adventurer called "Metals" in order to see the world, use her knowledge and skills, and make the most of her new life.
During the events of Hell to Pay, Magnolia made a second deal with the infernal entity to save her life. After the deal was struck and their work completed, the devil sent Magnolia "home" and dropped her in the middle the feywild, ending over 600 years of exile. Magnolia was then promptly taken into custody by the Protector.
Trivia
Grammy's Country Apple Pie is a Magnolia book. The fairy Magnolia is something of a self-insert. This is the game that originated the character concept.
Magnolia the Living Swamp first appeared in The Foe of Many Faces Returns and was also referenced in the Feywild Illegal Film Festival.
MTLS has a grung friend who transports her manuscripts from the swamp to her publisher. They are the one who encouraged Magnolia to start putting her work out there.
The swamp genasi subrace was created by members of this server specifically for Magnolia
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